You are closer to Czech beers by using their malt, not because it's "floor malted", but because it uses the barley variety, terrior and steeping schedule and kilning profile that gives it what you've come to expect.

Weyermann has TWO Bohemian Pilsners, one floor malted,the other conventional. I've used both and prefer the conventional. It's very consistent, and IMO gives better body, mouthfeel and foam, and a less muddy flavor, than the floor malt. That said, my choice is still the regular Weyermann Pilsner.

Your palate must be well refined, indeed, and I know mine is not so much, but I’d be interested in any side by side blind tasting results, if any have been done. I just might put that on the agenda for 2018 - but I bet the results will be relatively inconclusive, as the pool of tasters in my group are not very refined. Cheers!

You are closer to Czech beers by using their malt, not because it's "floor malted", but because it uses the barley variety, terrior and steeping schedule and kilning profile that gives it what you've come to expect.

Good point. So, as it is readily available - and I don't know where to get Czech malts otherwise, I will go with it when I can get it.

A couple years ago I installed an RO system with a line to my kitchen sink and a line to my garage (where I brew - usually electric). This was the best move I ever made in brewing - the TDS meter shows a typical post-treat water of 12-14 TDS. I preboil my H2O and add a little CaCl2, some NaMeta, and some Brewtan B to my mash and run with it as adjusted for light German lagers. I get high compliments and can't keep the helles in stock with my friends choosing it over any other I brew.

I use their pale malt as a continental 2 row to blend a bit with pilsner for my helles and I use it straight up for ales. I like it and it seems to be a pretty clean pale malt. I prefer to get Weyermann's, but my LHBS gets a fair amount of Swaen and Avengard products, so I use them without hesitation.

Slightly irrelevant and off topic, but I'm curious about terminology. I see most here using "mash out" for what I always thought was "mash off." Full set of terms I learned: mash in = same as dough in, mash off = 170°F rest, mash down = transfer to lauter tun, mash out = same as grains out. Am I non-standard nowadays?

I'm thinking of Mash OFF, i.e. holding a 170F rest.

So after step mashing for intervals of say, 30 minutes at each of two selected mash temps, you increase to and hold at 76-77C (or at 170F) for another 10 minutes during a recirculation mash, right? (i.e., a 70 minute mash routine in total, plus ramp times)?

Props for sure. I am wondering if anyone has had bottle conditioned beers tested for DO levels. Just thinking that the final scavenging in the carbonation phase would further reduce the average homebrew DO level rather than bottling from keg as most do.

Only active yeast consume oxygen.

So lets run though this to all get on the same page. I have to make some assumptions here so please correct me when I am wrong.

Ferment to gravity in the fermenter. Allow beer to clear maybe cold crash?

Beer sits in the primary 2 weeks. The off to the bottling bucket we go. Stir in priming source. Add to bottle. Use oxygen abosorbjng caps, but you sanitize them with tap water and sani saturated with 8-12ppm o2, there by sanitizing them but robbing them of all their scavenging potential.

Beer takes on oxygen from the transfer to the bottle bucket, and being put in the bottle. The beer is capped. With oxygen in the wort and in the headspace. It, after 1hr due to ideal gas laws has all the o2 of the headspace into the beer. Days pass before the yeast wakes up and starts consuming all the while letting in an additional 7ppb per day. You are under protection during this (and only this) phase. The yeast wake up after a week consume what it can. Eat the food source and go dormant. Every day 7ppb is added, this never stops in the bottle. If using swing tops double it.

I don’t disagree that you get another layer of protection then say a force carbed and counter pressure filled bottle. But you( proverbial you, all bottlers including any and ALL professionals) are fighting a winless battle.

The o2 permeability of steel is zero. But it’s not that easy either.

For sure it is not that easy. Your set up is very impressive. I am considering the lactic reactor/sauergut route, but I have to get more disciplined on the hot side, first. I have a closed loop RIMS arrangement, with silicone-gasketed mash tun cover, so I have made some strides on limiting O2 ingress (and I use only about a gram of NaMeta on my 10 gallon batches, along with BTB and CaCl2). Baby steps....

I’m not advocating for small maltsters as a craft thing, but I like Czech beers and like to think that I am getting closer to them at the homebrew level by using Czech made malts. Just a part of the hobby, like using certain hop varieties fir bittering. Maybe there’s no difference in the end, but you get to try it for yourself.

Props for sure. I am wondering if anyone has had bottle conditioned beers tested for DO levels. Just thinking that the final scavenging in the carbonation phase would further reduce the average homebrew DO level rather than bottling from keg as most do.

I have been using Weyermann Floor Malted Pilsner from before I knew it was Czech produced, but I didn’t know of any readily available Czech malts. It seems to me that the hand crafting of Malts is becoming the new “thing”.

I will try others, but since I use Weyermann for most German styles, I will get the Floor Malted Pils to be able to also make Czech beers a little more authentically.

I must admit I haven’t tried the Barke Pils yet and I intend to get to that soon.

As to the American lagers, I enjoy making Pre-Pro lagers more than the adjunct laden lagers, but I appreciate how difficult the American lagers can be - nothing to hide behind.

Yea, Midwest winter basement temps - low to mid 60's. I will definitely taste a sample when its done chugging along, but I thought I would submit the question to hear from the troops on the dry hopping....

So I was making side by side batches last Saturday and inadvertently pitched American Hefeweizen yeast that I intended for a Prickly Pear Wheat Ale into a Denny’s Rye IPA. The two fermenters were side by side and I was tired - what can I say?

Should I proceed to dry hop this concoction? Thankfully the wheat ale is proceeding nicely with the incorrect yeast that was setup for the RyeIPA. That will get the prickly pear syrup in the secondary fermenter and probably turn out just fine.

I can think of one malt that may not be linear as to pH - acidulated malt. But mostly I treat the ramp up of a recipe in a linear fashion, unless some ingredient is lending a unique expression of flavor that might overwhelm if added linearly - say hot peppers.